"Business as usual--1950s style:
United in 1953 introduced "Executive" all-male passenger flights. The men enjoyed free gifts such as cigars, which the stewardesses often lit for them. A reporter for Playboy magazine wrote, ". . .the only girls aboard are a couple of unobtrusive stewardesses. . ."
The popular Executive flights flew 10,500 segments, with a load factor of 80 to 90 percent, from 1953 until they were discontinued in 1970.
Complimentary alcohol, measured in cruets, was added to first class flights in 1956, and passengers were restricted to a two-drink limit. Stewardesses monitored the drink ration."

The infamous business men special flights......steak dinners, cocktails, shaply F/As in their provactive uniforms, cigars.....all to make horny business men happy. The atmosphere sounds like an exclusive gentelmens club or a gay bar, depending upon how you look at it.

Have times changed.....NOW, your seat with 31 inches of pitch is uncomfortable, every seat on the airplane is occupado, there is no smoking, you pay for drinks, you eat your Subway sandwich that you bought on the way to the airport, and the F/A is a wonderful man or women who will show you pics of the eight grandchildren. Progress?

But all of this was present in other flights that catered to both men and women. Actually women have been depicted as passengers in most airline advertisement since the 1930s. The reasoning behind excluding women passengers is really puzzling - unless more than what is published was happening in these flights.....

Ok, let the grayhair tell you about the Executive flight.
First MDW to LGA then after the jets arrived, ORD to EWR with a Caravelle.
The perks for an addition 3 or was it 5 bucks(i have UA scheds so I will look
up the exact premium tonight)you have a Men only flight, no women or kids or teens or infants. You got slippers, a great hot meal earmarked for First(the caravelle was all 64 seats F anyway) playboy mag was available along with sport mags, wall street journal, which was unheard of on planes and great service expected of First class of the 60's.
The flights left EWR and ORD apx 5pm.
safe

Quoting Dutchjet (Reply 5):Have times changed.....NOW, your seat with 31 inches of pitch is uncomfortable, every seat on the airplane is occupado, there is no smoking, you pay for drinks, you eat your Subway sandwich that you bought on the way to the airport, and the F/A is a wonderful man or women who will show you pics of the eight grandchildren. Progress?

True, very true....

Although I want to make clear that I am not critizicing the changes in commercial air travel over the last 40 years or have a desire to turn back the clock to the "good old days". I am just saying that it is a very pointed and accurate observation by Dutchjet.

Quoting ORDTerminal1 (Reply 3):At one point, United distributed vouchers for these men's wives to accompany them on trips. They read something like "A special invitation for wives whose huspands like to fly"

From what I can recall from old timetables and OAG's, these men-only flights were only in the CHI-NYC and LAX-SFO markets, and just one or two each way departing in the neighborhood of 4pm - 6pm. With both of these being high frequency (even back then) there was a conventinoal flight within about an hour or so.

Still, quite a trip (in more than one way) if you think about it today...

Quoting DAirbus (Reply 12):Yes. I believe it was a customer option. I remember flying on a SPANTAX DC-10 JFK-MAD back in 1983/1985 and distinctly remember the elevators and cart lifts to the lower galley.

The L-1011 has/had them as well.

I remember that on AA's DC-10s, the food trucks would load directly into the cargo area, not the main cabin floor.

I used to work for Western...And on a HNL flight, a male FA I used to chat with at the airport took me downstairs to show me the galley...And on the way up, leaving the escalator, the senior FA saw me and gave me the dirtiest look. As an airplane nut, I could not pass up the offer.
Basically, both sides of the fusalage were lined with bins on top, a counter, and below are spaces for all the carts.
It must have been nice to work the galley down there, plenty of space to move around and set the carts up.

Quoting Incitatus (Thread starter):What was the logic behind offering a flight to male passengers only? It would seem to me this would be an unpopular idea in the US of the 60s.

What routes were these flights offered and did any other airline offer them?

I've searched the database and could not find a thread on the matter.

Although they were not marketed only to men, in the early 1960's Mohawk Airlines offered what they called 'Gaslight' flights. DC-3s were painted in a turn-of-the century 'Gay 90's' livery. The 'hostess' was dressed in a Klondike Gold Rush saloon girl outfit. On-board service included beer in big glass mugs, pretzles, cigars, etc. Everything short of sawdust on the floor!

These flights would certainly appeal to male passengers. At the time Mohawk was using DC-3s against more modern equipment flown by American and Eastern, their major competitors in the upstate New York-Northeastern US area.